Every sale on the Steam Community Market looks simple until you see the gap between what a buyer pays and what you receive. Two fees sit in that gap, both charged on top of your asking price, and together they hand roughly an eighth of the transaction to Valve on every single trade.
The two fees, and what you actually keep
The buyer pays your listed price plus a 5% Steam transaction fee and a 10% game-specific fee (CS2's rate). Those are stacked on the sale, so the number you set is not the number you get. After both come out, the seller nets about 87% of what the buyer paid.
Here is the same sale routed two ways — through Steam and through a typical third-party marketplace — so the trade-off is visible in one glance.
| Route | Fees | Payout |
|---|---|---|
| Steam Community Market | 5% Steam + 10% CS2 ≈ 13% | Steam Wallet only, non-withdrawable |
| Third-party marketplace | ~2%–15% seller commission | Withdrawable — cards, crypto, PayPal-likes |
The Steam Wallet catch
The fee is only half the story. Steam Wallet funds are a one-way street: the money from a sale can buy more games, skins and market listings, but it can never be withdrawn as real cash. For a player who only spends inside Steam that is fine; for anyone trying to cash out, it is a wall.
This is the core reason third-party marketplaces exist. They charge a seller commission — very roughly 2% to 15% depending on the platform — but they pay out in withdrawable money: bank cards, crypto, and PayPal-style services. In exchange you take on their trust, delivery and liquidity trade-offs instead of Steam's.
Run the numbers before a big sale
On a cheap skin the difference is noise. On an expensive one, the ~13% Steam cut versus a lower third-party commission — and the withdrawable-versus-locked distinction — can be the difference between a good exit and a bad one. Decide based on where you want the money to land, not just the headline fee.
Before listing anything expensive, price the exit on every route. Our marketplace fee comparison lays out each platform's cut side by side, and the sell fee calculator shows exactly what lands in your pocket at live prices.